September NPD numbers: Microsoft at number one on the strength of Halo 3

September's hardware and software sales numbers show an impressive jump for …

When we look at video game hardware and software sales from September there is one word that will get everyone talking: and that word is Halo. It's no surprise that the game was a large influence on the charts, but what is surprising is how big of an impact the game has had on hardware sales. In fact, hardware sales this month are 124 percent higher this year than they were for September of last year. When you look at the sales numbers, it's not hard to see that Microsoft led that charge.

Microsoft

The Xbox 360 was the number one piece of hardware this month; Nintendo was finally knocked from its perch. The Xbox 360 sold 527,000 units, a huge leap from the 276,700 sold last month. It's not hard to see why with Halo 3 claiming the top sales slot for software with 3.3 million units sold. People bought Halo 3, and people bought Xbox 360 hardware to play it on.

Microsoft had a solid month for software sales in general, with Skate and Madden NFL '08 claiming the fifth and sixth slots on the sales charts respectively, and Bioshock taking the number eight slot. This is an absolutely huge month for Microsoft and should give it a nice boost of momentum going into the holidays; for at least one month, the Microsoft team can say it did better than Nintendo.

Nintendo

While Microsoft may have ridden Halo 3 to number one, no one is going to argue that Nintendo did badly this month. The Wii sold 501,000 units, and the DS sold 495,800 units. This is a boost of around 100,000 units for both systems from last month, but then again Nintendo had an extra week to work with. Nintendo isn't slowing down, and with news that the Wii won't be in ready supply this holiday season, expect sales at least this strong going into the holidays as Nintendo struggles to get enough product onto retail shelves.

Nintendo also continues to do a brisk trade in first-party games, with Wii Play taking the number two slot on the software charts. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the DS took the number three slot, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption came in at number seven. Brain Training 2 took the number 9 slot, giving Nintendo a total of four of the top ten slots and tying with Microsoft.

Nintendo is a freight train when it comes to sales this generation; we'll see if Microsoft is able to keep its lead next month.

Sony

It's nice to see Heavenly Sword show up on the top ten list for software at number ten, selling 139,000 units—the game is a favorite around the Opposable Thumbs offices. That's the only good news for Sony this month, unfortunately. The PlayStation 3 sold 119,400 units; if it wasn't for the GameBoy Advance, it would be the worst selling system on the list. The PlayStation Portable sold a respectable 284,500 units, and the PlayStation 2 is going strong with 215,000 pieces of hardware sold. What impact a $400 PlayStation 3 that doesn't play PlayStation 2 games will have on both PS3 and PS2 sales will be a question we'll have to wait a few months to answer.

The fact that Microsoft came out on top when this was the Wii's second-strongest month in sales since launch is an impressive feat. "Although we've been confident for many months now that the industry was poised to realize its best year ever in terms of revenue, the results in recent months makes me even more bullish," said the NPD Group's Anita Frazier in a statement. "I believe the US video games industry will realize somewhere in the range of $17 to $18 billion for the year."

With Nintendo posting rock-steady numbers every month and Microsoft seeing nice gains based on their large franchises, Sony has to hope less expensive PS3s will help get gamers moving onto their Blu-ray equipped console.